5. An argument is circular if its conclusion is among its premises, if it assumes (either explicitly or not) what it is trying to prove. Such arguments are said to be guilty of the logical fallacy called begging the question.

6. institutionalized cruelty.

6. Hallie’s term for the physical and psychological cruelty that has become so established it seems natural to both the victim and the victimizer is institutionalized cruelty.

7. Negative command

7. Negative command is Hallie’s term for a moral command that always involves a negative, such as “do not lie.”

8. Pacifism

8. Pacifism is the belief that war and violence are morally wrong regardless of the circumstances.

9. positive command

9. Hallie’s term positive commandrefers to a moral command to actively do something rather than merely refraining from doing something wrong. For example, help people in distress.

10. Silver Rule

10. A negative version of the Golden Rule called the Silver Rule teaches that you should not do to others what you would not want them to do to you.

11. social contract theory.

11. A type of social theory that was popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that assumes humans in the early stages of society got together and agreed on contracts necessary for creating a society is called social contract theory.

12. Descriptive ethics

12. Descriptive ethics is the practice of describing the ethical practices of a people without making an evaluative or judgmental statement.

13. The divine command theory

13. The divine command theory suggests that since God has created the laws of morality, an act is right or wrong because it is consistent with the command of God.

14. Ethical egoism

14. Ethical egoism is the theory that all people can and should seek their own self interests ignoring the interests of others.

15. Ethics

15. Ethicsis the studying, questioning, and justification of moral rules.

16. ethics of conduct.

16. The study of moral rules pertaining to decisions about what course of action to take or “what to do” in a given situation is called ethics of conduct.

17. The generic fallacy

17. The generic fallacy assumes that something can be fully explained by pointing to its original or first state of existence.

18. Intuition

18. Intuition

is an experience of understanding that is independent of one’s reasoning, at least consciously. Can also refer to a moment of understanding or insight.

19. Metaethics

19. Metaethics

is an approach to ethics that refrains from making judgments but is rather focused on the meaning of words.

20. Morality

20. Morality refers to the moral rules and attitudes that we live by or are expected to live by.

21. Moral nihilism

21. Moral nihilismis the belief that there are no moral truths.

22. Normative ethics

22. Normative ethics refers to the process of establishing norms or standards for human action and character.

23. Ontology

23. Ontology is the philosophical discipline of investigating the nature and meaning of existence or being.

24. Psychologicalaltruism

24. Psychological altruismis the theory that everyone is always unselfish and interested in the needs of others.

25. Psychological egoism

25. Psychological egoism is the theory that everyone is always selfish and interested only in their own ends.

26. Soft universalism

26. Soft universalismis an ethical theory that says even though humankind cannot agree on all moral rules and customs, there are a few bottom line virtues that we can agree on, even though we might express them in different

manners.

27.straw man argument

27. A logical fallacy that consists of attacking and disproving a theory that was invented for that purpose is called a straw man argument.

28. subjectivism

28. The ethical theory of subjectivism claims that your moral belief is right simply because you believe it and there are no shared moral standards.

29. Communitarianism

29. Communitarianism is a moral and political theory that suggests individuals receive his or her identity from his or her community and can flourish only within the community.

30. contractarianism

30. The theory that only humans can have rights because only humans can enter into agreements and recognize duties springing from those agreements is called contractarianism.

31. The dialectical method

31. The dialectical method was used by Socrates whereby through a series of interrogative questions and dialogue a student could be led to their own realization of truth. Also called the Socratic method.

32. Ethics of virtue

32. Ethics of virtue is the study of

moral traits pertaining to the building of character and being

33. ethos

33. The moral rules, attitudes, and values of a culture is called that culture’s ethos

34. eudaimonia

34. The ancient Greeks term for the goal of human life is eudaimonia. This term is also used to describe the goal of ethics and refers to well-being, contentment, and happiness.

35. Existentialism

35. Existentialism

is the belief that all people have the freedom of will to determine their own way of life.

36. Plato's theory of forms

36. Plato’s theory of forms is a metaphysical theory suggesting that for all things on earth there is a higher form in a higher realm that gives meaning and existence to all things that we can experience through our senses. For example, in the higher realm of forms there exists a perfect circle that gives meaning and existence to the imperfect circles that exist in the tangible world.

37. original position

37. According to the thought exercise called original position, people come together to re-envision their society by hypothetically going back in time and asking ourselves the simple question, “What kind of society would people choose if they could start all over again from the beginning?”

38. veil of ignorance

38. Because people would enter into the thought exercise of original position with the goal of structuring society in such a way as to protect their privilege, Rawls suggested that people had to enter into the discussion from behind the veil of ignorance where they would not know their position in the new society.

39. Narrative ethics

39. Narrative ethics refers to both the idea that the fullness of morals is taught most completely in and through the use of stories and that stories have the power to form ethical character and inspire ethical action.

40. Metanarratives

40. Metanarratives refers to those stories that are the defining and controlling stories that direct a society.

41. alternative stories

41. Stories that are give a competing understanding of reality are called alternative stories

42. The ethics of domination

42. The ethics of domination can be defined as any act through which one person or groups of persons exercise authority over another person so as to subjugate that person or that person’s needs or resources to themselves.

43. liberty principle

43. Rawls’ liberty principle states that everyone should have the maximum number of freedoms as long as everyone else has those freedoms as well.

44. difference principle

44. According to the difference principle, Rawls suggested that any social, political, or economic inequality in society should be attached to positions that anyone can hold and should be to the benefit of the least well off in society.

45. biocentrism

45. The view that all living things have some degree of moral status is called biocentrism.

46. Anthropocentrism

46. Anthropocentrismis the notion that only humans have moral status.

47. appeal to ignorance

47. The fallacy of arguing that the absence of evidence entitles us to believe a claim is true is called an appeal to ignorance.

Don't ask me there is no #48

Reserved for later use I suppose.

49. appeal to the person

49. The fallacy of arguing that a claim should be rejected solely because of the characteristics of the person who makes it is the appeal to the person.

50. Applied ethics

50. Applied ethics is the application of moral norms and systems to specific moral issues or cases, particularly those in a profession such as medicine or law.

51. Emotivism

51. Emotivism is the view that moral utterances are neither true nor false but are expressions of emotions or attitudes.

52. ethics of care

52. A perspective on moral issues that emphasizes close personal relationships and moral virtues such as compassion, love, and sympathy is called ethics of care.

53. Hasty generalization

53. Hasty generalization is the fallacy of drawing a conclusion about an entire group of people or things based on an undersized sample of the group.

54. A moral statement

54. A moral statement is any statement affirming that either an action is right or wrong or a person is good or bad.

55. A nonmoral statement

55. A nonmoral statement is any statement that does not affirm that an action is right or wrong or that a person is good or bad.

56. Rule-egoism

56. Rule-egoism is the theory that to determine right action, you must see if an act falls under a rule that if consistently followed would maximize your self-interest.

57. The slippery slope fallacy

57. The slippery slope fallacy is the using of dubious premises to argue that doing a particular action will inevitably lead to other actions that will result in disaster, so you should not do that first action.

58. virtue

58. A stable disposition or character trait that compels a person to act in a certain way according to some ideal or model of excellence is called a virtue.

59. Angst

59. Angst is a term for anxiety or anguish, used by existentialist philosophers to describe a feeling of dread without any identifiable cause.

60. banality of evil

60. Hannah Arendt’s concept of how ordinary people can be persuaded through pressure from authorities or group pressure to harm innocent people, believing it to be normal and justifiable is called the banality of evil.

61. Dualism

61. Dualism is the metaphysical theory that reality consists of matter and mind. Also used as a term for any theory of opposite forces.

62. ethical pluralism

62. When several moral systems are at work simultaneously in a culture it is called ethical pluralism.

63. hedonism

63. The seeking of pleasure as moral way of life is called hedonism.

64. The paradox of hedonism

65. Lex talionis

65. Lex talionis is Latin for the law of retaliation (an eye for an eye). This is a form of retributivist ethical

theory.

66. Moral nihilism

duplicate

66. Moral nihilism is the belief that there are no moral truths.

duplicate

67. skepticism

67. The philosophical approach that we cannot obtain absolutely certain knowledge and so therefore we do not believe anything until there is sufficient evidence to support the belief is called skepticism.

68. Veneer theory

68. Veneer theorysuggests that moral values are nothing more than a thin social

veneer covering our basically selfish nature.

69. Zoocentrism

69. Zoocentrism is the notion that both human and nonhuman animals have moral status.

70. duty of beneficence.

70. A moral obligation to benefit others is called the duty of beneficence.